I was a bit sad to see today that "Vinnie's Authentic Indian" finally has closed. I mean, I suppose "Vinnie" can be a nickname for a traditionally Indian name too, but the "authentic" part always made me picture some stereotypical Italian mobster guy saying "no really, it's Indian food!"

Apparently there's a chain of supermarkets in the US called Piggly Wiggly. Maybe in the South? I'm in the Midwest and have never seen one in real life. I guess you get used to things, but I can't imagine saying, "I'm going to run down to the Piggly Wiggly," with a straight face...

Oh, yes. Piggly Wiggly is all over here in my city (Charleston, SC). We usually just say "I'm running to the Pig- need anything?" Of course, if you need some harder to find items you go to the "Big Pig" which is the largest store in the chain in my area, because they have more variety. My next door neighbor is the manager of my local Pig!

Some things about the Pig:

They are very into selling locally grown foods, which is a big plus for a lot of people. We have a large farming community so many of us prefer to buy our produce there.

The Newton family, the owners of the chain, also own one of our finest (and nationally renowned) restaurants.

They have recently come out with their own brand of beer called Pig Swig.

I used to know a young woman who was married to a Newton. Sadly, she was widowed a few years later. When she remarried several years later, the Newtons insisted on giving her a $2 million house as a wedding gift. Must be nice!

As far as I can tell, Piggly Wiggly is a chain of independently owned shops started by the Saunders family.

It looks like your local stores are the chain's largest franchise group, once owned by some Newtons and now run by a man with the surname of Schools and "employee-owned."

The one Piggly Wiggly I have experience with, in Georgia in the '80s and '90s, was disgusting. I hope they've improved over the years! Perhaps individual franchisees excel.

Moving on ...My town has Book People and Book Woman. Either seems to accept patrons of any age and sex (though the former is a general-interest bookstore and the latter is a feminist/female interest bookstore).

I think it was the presentation, but there is a marmalade made by Wm P. Hartley. For a long time, on the top of the jar in the US, the P. and Hartley were so closely spaced that it read like one word suggesting an undesirable result from consuming it.

Because if you get stuck in one no one will come and help you. 10 of us spent 3 hours tapped in one one night and the operators on the emergency phone kept hanging up on us and refused to send a tech out. Eventually we managed to prise the doors open and escape between 2 floors.

Because if you get stuck in one no one will come and help you. 10 of us spent 3 hours tapped in one one night and the operators on the emergency phone kept hanging up on us and refused to send a tech out. Eventually we managed to prise the doors open and escape between 2 floors.

To be fair though, those operators probably don't work for Schindler. On the other hand, we once had to wait 3 hours for the Schindler mechanic to come, when we had people stuck in an elevator. By that time we had already had the fire department rescue them, and then we had a good talk with Schindler about response times.

There's a firm that's involved a lot in public constructions around my town - Priestley Demolitions.

I know it's just a name, but I love to visualize them doing their job by blowing ram's horns instead of using wrecking balls.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."